Introduction to UNIX
Syllabus for CPSC 1210, fall 2008
Class meeting times:
Tuesday and Thursday, 6:30 p.m. to 7:45 p.m.
September 2 – December 13, 2008
CS Lab, Room 002 Library
Final exam:
Final Exam: Thursday, December 11, 2008, 6:30 – 7:45 p.m.
Tutor:
To be determined.
Last updated: October 23, 2008
Announcements:
Homework #3 is posted at http://csit.graceland.edu/~farnham/courses/cpsc1210Homework3.htm
See
my General
Course Syllabus for information regarding Contacting
me, Text and
equipment requirements, General
grading information, General term
paper requirements, Grading
for papers, One-minute
papers, Daily
quizzes, Grading
for presentations, Grading
for group projects, Late work,
Plagiarism
and cheating, Final exam,
Incomplete
grades, Class
attendance, Inclement weather, and Disabilities.
Course description and
objective
This course is an introduction to the UNIX operating system. Students will become familiar with the UNIX file system, key UNIX utilities, shell programming, X-Windows, editors, and more. Students successfully completing this course will be able to accomplish productive work using the Unix operating system.
This course gives emphasis to Graceland Educational Goal #8: To be competent in using current technology for information processing.
Prerequisites
None!
Required texts and
equipment
In addition to general text and equipment requirements, the following are required for this course:
Text: Sarwar, S.M.; Koretsky, R.; Sarwar, S.A. UNIX the textbook, 2nd ed. ISBN: 0-321-22731-X. Addison-Wesley. 2005.
Other: An account on Graceland’s Windows 2000 server network. An account will be provided on Graceland ’s Computer Science server csit.graceland.edu and neo.graceland.edu for students enrolled in this course. These accounts will be created automatically. Access to telnet, ftp and other utility programs will be provided via the CS-Lab computers.
E-mail list
The e-mail list for this course is
This list will be used primarily by me to send various class-related announcements to the class. Students are invited to use this list for discussions among themselves and me relating to this class. This is a closed list, meaning I must approve each request to be subscribed or unsubscribed. This is an unmoderated list, meaning anyone can send a message to the list at any time. To send messages to the members of this list, use the address given above.
If you have any questions or comments which you do not want to send to everyone in the class, please feel free to contact me privately.
Course work
1. Assignments. There will be ten
homework assignments, consisting either written questions and/or practical
assignments in the lab. Answers to written exercises must be emailed to me by
the due date. Solutions for lab exercises must be deposited in the student’s
submissions directory for this class on the neo.graceland.edu server by the due
date. The due date for assignments will
be provided at the time the assignment is given to the class.
2. Quizzes. Each week, there will be a short (usually one
question) quiz to test students’ understanding of material presented in the
previous week’s class periods. The types
of questions may be true/false, multiple choice and/or short answer questions
of the instructor’s devising. See my general course syllabus for detailed information regarding quizzes.
3. “One-minute papers.” See my general course
syllabus for detailed information regarding one-minute
papers .
4. There will be two unit exams and one
final exam, including the same types of questions as the quizzes. Important note: all quizzes and exams will be closed book,
closed note, closed Internet, and closed neighbor.
5. The final exam will be a demonstration
of the students’ ability to produce results using the UNIX operating system. As
such, it is a comprehensive exam. Be sure you are aware of the University
Policy for final exams.
The final exam for this course is Thursday, May 11, 2008, 6:30 – 7:45 p.m., in
Room 002 Library.
Computation of grades
and grading scale
See my general course syllabus regarding general grading information, late work and incomplete grades. The components of the course are designed to contribute the following weights to the final grade for the course:
Assignments – 40%
Quizzes – 10%
One-minute papers – 10%
Unit exams - 20
Final Exam – 20%
The points earned by a student will be divided by the available component points, multiplied by the component weight and the letter grade assigned based on the following scale:
|
Grading Scale |
|
|
Final Point Range |
Letter Grade |
|
90 to 100 percent |
A |
|
80 to 89 percent |
B |
|
70 to 79 percent |
C |
|
60 to 69 percent |
D |
|
Below 60 percent |
F |
Thus, a student who does poorly on exams may do well by regularly turning in quality assignments and extra credit.
Individual scores for this course
will be posted throughout the semester at http://csit.graceland.edu/~farnham/courses/cpsc1210gr.htm.
A unique grade identifier will be
assigned to each student during the first week of class to enable students to
identify their own scores in the web page.
Extra credit
For extra credit, a student may write and present a biography of a person who made a key contribution to the field of Computer Science or Information Technology. More information about the requirements for a biography paper and presentation will be provided on the first day of class.
Tentative course
schedule
|
Week |
Dates |
Activity |
||
|
1 |
09/01 –
09/05 |
Introductions Reading:
Chapters 0, 1, 2 |
||
|
2 |
09/08 –
09/12 |
Reading:
Chapters 3, 4, 5 |
||
|
3 |
09/15 –
09/19 |
09/15: Last
Day to Add 09/16: Exam
1 Reading:
Chapters 7, 8 |
||
|
4 |
09/22 – 09/26 |
09/23: Last
Day to Change to Pass/Fail or back to Graded, and Last Day to Drop 09/25: Bob
at Duke University |
||
|
5 |
09/29 – 10/03 |
Reading:
Chapters 9, 10 |
||
|
6 |
10/06 – 10/10 |
Reading:
Chapters 11, 12 |
||
|
7 |
10/13 – 10/17 |
Reading:
Chapter 13 |
||
|
8 |
10/20 – 10/24 |
Midterm
Break: 10/17 5:00 p.m. through 10/22 8:00 a.m. No class
10/21: Midterm Break |
||
|
9 |
10/27 – 10/31 |
Reading:
Chapter 14 |
||
|
10 |
11/03 – 11/07 |
11/04: Exam
2 Reading:
Chapter 15 |
||
|
11 |
11/10 – 11/14 |
11/15: Last
Day to Put on Audit |
||
|
12 |
11/17 – 11/21 |
Reading:
Chapter 16 |
||
|
13 |
11/24 – 11/28 |
Thanksgiving
Break: 11/25 9:00 p.m. through 12/01 8:00 a.m. No class:
Thursday 11/27: Thanksgiving Break |
||
|
14 |
12/01 – 12/05 |
Reading:
Chapter 19 |
||
|
15 |
12/08 – 12/12 |
Final Exam:
Thursday, December 11, 2008, 6:30 – 7:45 p.m. |
||
|
16 |
12/15 – 12/18 |
Final Exam
Week – No activities for this class! |
||